How we became ImparfaiT
February 12th, 2024
Written by Nick Nichols, Cfo, Imparfait Design Studio and KitchenLab Interiors
Naming something, anything, is a difficult proposition.
Many of us take the easy way out when naming our children, one of the most contentious issues, by naming them after someone - a favorite uncle, John Coltrane (currently in vogue), a city or state, something, anything, that means something to us.
Rebekah & Nick in 1998 discussinG the beginnings of KitchenLab at a bar in LONDON
When Rebekah and I started KitchenLab, we both had seminal experiences in hospitality and the restaurant business and loved entertaining. These experiences reinforced our belief that the kitchen is where all the good things happen: bread is broken, wine is poured, Coltrane is played, and perhaps, children are named. Kitchens are where it is at, and this will always be true. Yet, as the first years passed, clients began to ask: “Do you do more than kitchens?” Being young, boundaryless souls, we said “Yes.”
Over the years, Rebekah and I spent many bottles of wine discussing what we were and what we aspired to be. The years passed, and many projects were completed, and yes, most of them were more than just kitchens. Still, kitchens are in our DNA, and we love the name KitchenLab. So, we continued until we decided in 2018 to add “Interiors” to our name. That should solve the problem, right? Wrong. People still couldn’t get around the “kitchen” in our name. How do you begin to summarize twenty years? Can you call a company “We don’t just do f*ing kitchens?” Not exactly the vibe we’re looking to communicate.
SCROLL TO SEE some of OUR FAVORITE KITCHENLAB PROJECTS
Okay, where were we? Ah, yes, Imparfait. KitchenLab turns 20 in 2024. This year, Rebekah and I finally came to the point where it was time to take the plunge and rebrand our company. In the process, we discovered we couldn’t leave KitchenLab as a footnote in history and decided to keep it as a company that really, truly does kitchens.
This move necessitated another - a new sister company. Thus, Imparfait Design Studio was born to become our complete home interior design practice. Imparfait came to us in a fever dream in the middle of a long, hot summer night at our home in Michigan…in the kitchen, of course. Rebekah “found” it, and I knew right away that it was, well, perfect.
What is Imparfait? For us, it means character-driven design, spaces and objects with soul, layers, and the patina of a life well lived. In grammatical terms, “imparfait” is the French imperfect tense used to describe an incomplete or ongoing action or state of being. Our homes are always in an evolving state of being, just like the people who live there. Now we get to spend the next 20 years explaining what “imparfait” means…clearly, we’re gluttons for punishment.
